The crypto puppies barked
Let’s start with an asset that is loved by some, and widely criticized by others. Dogecoin has skyrocketed this year, mainly due to surreptitious social media posts by Elon Musk, the “Person of the year”. As of January 1, 2021, the DOGE was only worth $ 0.004 and was largely ignored by the majority of crypto traders. The DOGE had its first small push in February, and proved to be the first of a number of strokes from the whimsical and divisive boss of Tesla.
In June, Mister Musk touted DOGE as a payment network, which led to a new wave of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), in other words, the fear of missing the train regarding the memecoin (cryptocurrency created as a joke).
DOGE has fallen since that epic blow of the pump. But all the extra mainstream media it got, in addition to its live on major trading platforms, still allowed the joke piece to show a monumental 3,800% performance from the start. of the year.
Small aside to the (even more) speculative sauce. Let’s take too much, much too much height on the side of the cryptocurrency Shiba Inu (SHIB) which has seen its course literally pulled down in the wake of Dogecoin. Sensitive souls refrain. + 988800%. For example: € 100 deposited at the start of the year on SHIBA would currently represent nearly € 1 million. Shiba is positioned in thirteenth place in the standings.
Dogecoin (DOGE)
Rank by market capitalization
Initial position in December 2020: 26
Final position December 2021: 12
DOGE token price in 2021
Source: CoinMarketCap
The rise of blockchains overshadows Ethereum
After only one year of existence, Solana is potentially familiar to you if you are an investor in this market. Developed by engineers from large companies across the Atlantic such as Google, Microsoft and Apple, the Solana blockchain aims to solve Ethereum’s scalability problems. The native blockchain token, SOL, also had an exceptional year in terms of earnings. At the start of 2021, SOL was only worth $ 1.52, at the time of writing, it was trading at just over $ 200. This is an epic win of over 13,100% in less than a year.
SOL hit an all-time high of $ 260 in early November, but retreated as markets began to correct late in the year. This massive move helped SOL move up to fifth place in the market capitalization rankings after peaking at fourth place.
Major investments and increased developer adoption in the wake of soaring Ethereum transaction prices gave momentum to Solana, which was also touted as an “Ethereum killer” by some pundits. In June, Solana Labs raised $ 314 million through a private token sale led by Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital.
Solane (SOL)
Rank by market capitalization
Initial position in December 2020: 112
Final position in 2021: 5
SOL token price in 2021
Source: CoinMarketCap
Terra is another blockchain which aims to accommodate decentralized finance applications (DeFi). The native token of the decentralized financial payment network LUNA has also entered the top 20 cryptocurrencies. LUNA started the year trading at around $ 0.65 and was, for the most part, unknown to crypto traders.
The rapid expansion of Terra ecosystem partners was largely responsible for the price hike. LUNA price is currently on a ridge line, pulverizing historic highs day after day. At the time of this writing, the price is hovering around $ 100. The token is up almost 15,000% compared to January 1, 2021.
Terra (LUNA)
Rank by market capitalization
Initial position in December 2020: 62
Final position in 2021: 9
LUNA token price in 2021
Source: CoinMarketCap
A few other blockchains (and associated tokens) are also worth mentioning for making impressive gains this year. They include Avalanche’s AVAX up nearly 3,430% year-on-year, Polygon’s MATIC, which has jumped over 15,000%, and Binance’s BNB up more than 1,300% this year.
Finally, I have put together a summary table of the Top 20, showing the annual performance of each of them in terms of capitalization. As an indication, you will see stablcoins (token replicating a traditional currency) with an evolution of the capitalization. The price has remained the same for these stablecoins (1 USDT = 1 Dollar) even if the capitalization increases. It is therefore not about the performance of the price of the cryptocurrency, because in this case, a stablecoin must tend towards the performance of 0% against the dollar so that it replicates the reference currency as best as possible. An accumulation of these stablecoins in the wallets increases the capitalization but not the price. Make way for the recap ‘.
Top 1-10 Cryptocurrencies by Market Cap
Source: Zonebourse
Top 11-20 Cryptocurrencies by Market Cap
Source: Zonebourse
For you, what will be the next nuggets that will enter the Top 20 in 2022? To your predictions, and we will meet again next year in the same place to draw up an inventory of the new Top 20 cryptocurrencies.